Canto XXI
CANTO XXI
Climbing to the summit of the next bridge, the Wayfarers stop to peer into the fifth ditch. They are able to make out the surface of a viscous, boiling tar, but cannot penetrate it by sight (1–21). Virgil abruptly shouts at Dante to beware. Wheeling around, the Poet spies a fleet-footed, open-winged demon stealing up behind him on the reef and toting a barrator, like a slab of meat, over his shoulder. The devil plunges the evildoer into the bubbling pitch and immediately speeds off to Lucca for another jobber, like a watchdog after a thief (22–46). When the sinner surfaces, a horde of evil spirits hiding beneath the bridge springs out to taunt him, forks him with their grapples, and thrusts him under, like stewmeat in a cauldron (47–57). Virgil has his charge crouch behind a jag to shield himself as he ventures forth self-assured to parley with the demons, who, like a pack of hounds, rush out at him from under the bridge, their grappling hooks pointed his way. The intrepid Virgil bids one of them step forth to hear him out, at which Malacoda haughtily takes up the challenge but drops his fork, deflated, when Virgil declares that he leads Dante along the savage road by the will of Heaven (58–87). As the Master summons his cowering disciple back to him, the other devils rush up, threatening to prick him. The sly Malacoda silences them, however (88–105), and then tells Virgil that though the next bridge lies in ruins because of an earthquake which, in five hours, will have taken place 1,266 years and one day ago, another passable reef stands up ahead. He claims to be sending a band of his own there to patrol for sinners emerging from the pitch and proposes his cronies as escorts (106–126). Although Dante is intimidated by their grinding teeth and menacing brows, Virgil, taken in by the fiend’s offer, attributes the reason for their ominous looks to the boiling grafters. The evil spirits then exchange vulgar signs of complicity with one another (127–139).
1 In other talk from bridge to bridge we passed,[314]
Of which my Comedy cares not to sing,
And to the summit we were holding fast,
4 Then stopped to see another fissured ring[315]
Of Malebolge and more useless screams;
And strangely dark, I saw, was everything.
7 As in the Venice Arsenal there steams
In wintertime a sticky pitch they spread
To caulk again their vessels’ ailing seams
10 Because they cannot sail, and so instead
Now one mends ships, one plugs the ribs up now
Of vessels that on many trips have sped;
13 Some hammer at the stern, some at the prow,
And some make oars, and cordage some will twine,
Some patch the sails, the jibs some at the bow;
16 So, not by fire, but by an art divine
There boiled a tarry mass down in that pit,
Which smeared the banks there all along the line.
19 I saw it but could not see into it
Except for bubbles in the boiling tide
As all would swell and then, compressed, would sit.
22 And while I stared below, intent, my Guide
Exclaimed and said, “Look out! Look out!” to me
And drew me from my station to his side.
25 I turned round like a man who longs to see
What it is yet far better that he shun,
Whom fear unnerves so suddenly that he
28 Does not delay his start to watch what’s done.
And I beheld a devil black as night
Come up the reef behind us at a run.
31 How savage was his aspect to the sight!
How harsh his actions were! How he was fleet
With wings wide open and with paws so light!
34 He bore a sinner’s haunches both like meat
Across his sharp, high shoulder straight ahead
And held him by the tendons of the feet.
37 “Look! Malebranche,” from our bridge he said,[316]
“One of the elders of St. Zita’s! Ho![317]
Shove this one under, while to fetch more dead
40 Up to that land so well supplied I go,
Where, save Bonturo, every grafter’s lief[318]
For money to exchange a yes for no.”
43 He hurled him down, then turned on that hard reef;
And never was a mastiff, once untied,
In such a hurry to pursue a thief.
46 That sinner plunged, then showed—convulsed—outside;
But demons hid there covered by the pier.
“The Holy Face has here no place!” they cried.[319]
49 “You will not, as in Serchïo, swim here:
If you want nothing of the grappling hook,
Above the pitch you’d better not appear.”
52 More than a hundred prongs now pricked that crook—
All yelped: “Here under cover you must dance;
So pilfer, if you can, with none to look.”
55 Just so, our cooks might have their scullions lance
The meat with forks and plunge it deep below
Inside the cauldron, lest it float perchance.
58 And my good Master said: “So it won’t show
That you are present here, you have to squat
Behind a jag to have some screen, although
61 If they should do me some offense, fear not.
For well I know these matters: in the past
A fray of such a kind was once my lot.”
64 And so, beyond the bridge’s head he passed,
But as he reached the sixth embankment’s strands,[320]
He needed for his heart to be steadfast.
67 With all the rage and storm of canine bands
That rush out at a beggar who will bide
And of a sudden beg from where he stands,
70 They rushed out from the bridge’s underside
While turning all their grappling hooks his way;
“Let none of you be savage,” though, he cried.
73 “Before you touch me with a fork, I say
Let one of you come out to hear me through,
Then see if you would grapple such a prey.”
76 “Let Malacoda go!” thus cried the crew.[321]
At that, one stirred and, with the rest behind,
Approached him, saying: “What good will it do?”
79 “O Malacoda, do you think you’d find
That I have come,” he said, “secure to date
Against your obstacles of every kind
82 Without the will of God and gracious fate?
Let us go on, for it is Heaven’s will
I show this rugged roadway to my mate.”
85 The pride that he had harbored fell so still
He dropped his pitchfork to his feet at that
And told them all: “Let no one do him ill.”
88 “O you still crouching, crouching where you sat
Among the bridge’s jags,” my Leader prayed,
“Return to me securely now,” whereat
91 I moved and started towards him undelayed.
But all the devils crowded up so near
I feared that they would break the pact they’d made.
94 Just so, I once saw footmen who in fear
Marched out by treaty from Caprona’s side,
While seeing round so many foes appear.[322]
97 I pressed my body closer to my Guide
And did not dare to turn away my eye
From how they looked, which wasn’t good. They cried
100 To one another with bent hooks: “Should I
Just let him have it in the rump today?”
“Yes, let him have it there!” came the reply.
103 But Malacoda quickly turned away
From conversation with my Guide and said:
“Be still now, Scarmiglione, still, I say!”[323]
106 And then to us: “No farther can one tread
Upon this reef for there lies in decay
The sixth bridge at the bottom up ahead.
109 Yet, if you wish to venture forth, you may
Move up and walk along this bank for near
There lies another reef that makes a way.
112 Just yesterday there was fulfilled the year
Twelve hundred sixty-six, five hours from now,
From when the roadway first was shattered here.[324]
115 I’m sending some of mine there anyhow
To see if one comes up for air again.
So go with them; they’ll do no harm, I vow.”
118 “Come Alichino, Calcabrina,” when
He started, he called out, “Cagnazzo, you;
And Barbariccia, see you lead the ten.
121 Come Libicocco, Draghinazzo, do!
Fanged Cirïatto, Graffiacane then,
Crazed Rubicante, Farfarello too.[325]
124 Search all around the boiling, gluey fen;
Let these be safe until the ridge,” said he;
“The next one runs intact across the den.”
127 “My goodness! Master, what is this I see?
If you know how,” I said, “let’s go on still
Without an escort—I want none for me.
130 If as before you have such wary skill,
Do you not see them grind their teeth so clear,
Nor see their eyebrows menace us with ill?”
133 He said to me: “I would not have you fear;
So let them go on grinding as they like,
They do it at these boiling wretches here.”
136 They wheeled around along the left-hand dike;
But first, as signal to a guide so crass,
All pressed their tongues between their teeth alike,
139 And that one made a trumpet of his ass.